


Animal Friend

by Flavius



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Anyways hope you enjoy this!, Beast Form!, F/M, Fluff, Fodlan, Golden Deer Route, Healing, I wanna kiss them!, I'm not good at tagging, Keatanne is a top tier ship name btw, Like... lots of fluff!, Post Timeskip, Shyness, asfkgaskhfgasjkfgaksf, lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:14:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25557922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flavius/pseuds/Flavius
Summary: The forests around Garreg Mach Monastery are perfect for Marianne. A lot of animals for her to interact with. However, one trip leads her to meeting someone unexpected.
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund/Flannel | Keaton
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Animal Friend

It was a gorgeous day. The sky was blue with the occasional passing of a white, puffy cloud. A small spectacle for anyone that takes a look above to the heavens. There was a gentle breeze. A perfect resonance to go along with the sound of church bells in the distance. There stood Garreg Mach Monastery. Though in grave shape, it’s still a sanctuary to the people of Fodlan. Even in the distance, its size was monumental. Befitting of the heart of the continent. Outside of the walls and cliff sides were forests. Inhabiting much life around the monastery with trees and animals a plenty.

In this forest was a healer who fashioned herself in a blue dress and braided hair that matched. Her name was Marianne von Edmund. A part of the Golden Deer house when she studied in the Officers Academy five years ago. Since then, her former classmates and her old professor, Byleth have reunited to unify Fodlan after the assault on the monastery by the Adrestian Empire. They have been using the monastery as a base between battles. As well as partake in leisure when they weren’t fighting. Marianne was doing just that. She wanted to be away from the hustle and bustle and connect with nature. She always found more comfort in animals anyway.

She has roamed the woods for about an hour now. She has been able to interact with some of the smaller animals such as bunnies and birds. Giving them some attention as well as a little bit of food. She stops for a moment to take in the air of the woods. The sound of the leaves were heavenly. However, there was something else. She heard what may be animals roughing it out in the distance. Suddenly, a loud howl rings in her ears. She runs away, afraid that a wolf might come after her.

Some time has passed and the sounds have disappeared. Marianne grows curious as to what had happened. Though it may be reckless, the sound she heard was one of great distress. It is quite possible that an animal had gotten hurt. As someone who has such a deep, personal connection with animals, she feels it is her duty to at least check it out.

After heading deeper into the woods, there she found her answer. However, it was not something that she was expecting. What she found was much bigger. There it was, a large beast with a resemblance to what appeared to be a wolf. It laid there on its backside, not moving. She feared the worst. Fearing that it died after what appears to be a fight. She slowly walks towards it. She’s never seen anything like this before. It was a beast, but it didn’t look anything like the demonic beasts she has fought in the past.

After inching her way forward, she finally stands by its side. She kneels to check for a pulse. She places her ear on the chest of the beast. She is relieved to hear a heartbeat, albeit being slow and somewhat faint. She is also relieved to see the beast’s stomach gently go up and down from breathing. It was alive, but it was exhausted. She circles around the beast to find out that it got injured after all.

“You poor thing…” She places her head on the beast's forehead, gently rubbing it. The beast moves a little bit as it slowly opens its eyes. Eyes that faintly glowed red. It looks at her and shakes a little bit. It tries to move around. Trying to flee, but to no avail. The beast lets out a loud whine.

“No no!... Please… don’t move…” It looks at her once again. Marianne was slightly taken back as glowing eyes is common for demonic beasts. However, the rest of it carried no other resemblance. She places her hand on its forehead once again and the beast relaxes. It closes its eyes as it becomes soothed by Marianne’s touch. Marianne uses her other hand to pet the fur on the beast’s neck. 

“There, there… It’s okay… You’re really hurt, but I’ll do my best to help you…” She gives it a smile as she continues to run her hand through the tufts of fur. The beast let out a low, soft growl. Almost to the point of being inaudible, but Marianne was able to feel the vibrations from its body. Her face beams a little, seeing that the beast had positively responded to her.

She stands up and makes her hands glow with white magic. She’s never seen an animal like this before, so she had some trouble knowing where to start. She looked around the body to see if there were any visible scratches, bruises, or cuts. After some observation, she found a cut on the side of its stomach. She gently hovers her hands over the cut, slowly having it be patched up. The beast makes another low growl, this one sounding even more soothed than the last one. She smiles again hearing its rumble by her healing.

Once done, she looks around for more injuries that she can remedy. After a few more minutes, she has healed some more cuts and scrapes on the beast’s body. She goes back to kneel near its face, softly petting its fur once again. “That should help you feel better. I’ve done what I could to help. You’ll still feel some pain here and there, but you don’t have to worry about those cuts.” The beast slightly opens its eyes once again, seeing her smile back at it. It stares at her for a little bit, low growls rumbling from its chest.

“W-who… are you?...”

Marianne gasps with absolute shock. She stands up, stepping back from the beast. She knows that what she just heard was not a voice from the background. Rather the distorted voice of a man she just heard came from the beast. She stands there, frozen. Unable to know what to do. Does she run? Should she run? Should she flee from the beast that she just helped. It doesn’t seem like it wants to hurt her… should she… speak to it?

“I-I… d-did you just ask who I am?...”

The beast just stares at her. Why did this kind healer all of a sudden get so distraught. It shimmies around, appearing to try and get up with no avail. It directs its face toward its hand. Despite its somewhat blurry vision, it saw the giant paw slightly wave around. “Ahh… I… think I get it now…”

In a brief moment, the beast's body begins to glow. Marianne goes to hide behind a tree, though she continues to look to see what happens. The body begins to shrink. Its features become less definable. Once the glow disappears, so too does the beast. What’s left... is a man? Marianne slowly comes out of hiding. There she sees a man that has ears resembling that of a wolf. She also sees a tail coming from underneath his body. He still appears too weak to get up, so she kneels down to him once again. He turns his head to her, looking into her eyes. She directs her eyes away, still confused and afraid of what exactly is going on.

“I… guess you’ve never seen a Wolfskin before... have ya?...” He chuckles a little bit, only to cut himself off with a couple coughs. Marianne looks back at him with worry upon her face. She could see there was still some pain in his eyes. In a moment, he would look away himself. He lets out a sigh.

“Y-you’re still hurt… you probably shouldn’t over extend yourself...” She goes to pet the fur on his neck out of instinct, only to realize that there was no fur there. The beast she had taken care of is no longer there. It was gone. Maybe not completely, but it's different now. She still wishes to help, but it won’t feel the same. She coats her hands in white magic once again, waving them across the body of the man.

The man continues to lay there as Marianne heals his body some more. He could feel the pain slowly fade away. He begins to move his fingers. Gaining more feeling back in areas of his body. He shimmies some more as he tries to get up. Marianne sees this and stops her healing. She helps him sit up. Placing a hand behind his back only to pull it away.. She felt fur there. Fur that was draping from his head. It felt a little strange to her. After sitting up, he looks over at her. He slightly wiggles his ears. “Welp… now you can say you’ve seen a Wolfskin.” He shows off a little bit of what appears to be fangs.

She places a hand over her mouth. He really was not just a man. He looked human, but… not at the same time. She has never seen or heard about a human with such animalistic features. The only exception being dragons, yet even they are rare and do not resemble any other animal in nature. He appeared to be a mix between a man and a wolf.

The man looks at her with some confusion. “Hey… you alright?...” He waves his gloved hand in front of her face.

She snaps out of her shock. “I-I’m sorry… I… I don’t know what I was doing...” She looks away.

The man respectively rubs the back of his neck as he looks away as well. “I… um… I wanna… t-thank you… y’know… for healing me and all…”

She looks back at him, seeing that he was quite bashful towards her. “It was nothing… I’m a healer, it’s my duty to help others… but… you’re welcome…” She turns away again. There she heard some thumping on the ground. It was his tail wagging. Her face lit up as a small blush came on her face.

The man continues to sit beside himself. Feeling embarrassed by the gratitude he gave. However, he couldn’t deny the kindness that this unknown healer was giving him. “Um… is it… okay if I know your name… I think I should know the name of the lady who healed me…”

She looks back at him. The blush hadn’t entirely gone away. “Of course… my name is Marianne…”

“Marianne?... That’s… a nice name…” He hides his face as some pink creeps on to his face. “Erm… my name is... Keaton by the way…”

“Oh… uh… that’s a nice name you have too… Keaton…” They sat there silently. Not saying a word to each other. They didn’t know what to say to each other. All there was was the sound of the leaves rustling as well the continued thumping of Keaton’s tail on the ground. Marianne looked over at Keaton, still feeling worried about him. He seemed better, but she couldn’t help but feel that he might still be hurting.

“If it’s okay… I wanna know what happened…” 

He glances over at her only to turn away just as fast. He was embarrassed that he got himself hurt. The biggest thing that was hurting for him was his pride. “I… got attacked… by a giant wolf…”

Her eyes open wide. She herself had seen giant wolves during her battles when fighting in the war. These wolves are much different than Wolfskin. They are giant, unhinged versions of a regular wolf. They’re very aggressive and will attack anything and anyone in sight. That explains the cuts that were present on Keaton’s body. They were claw marks left behind from the confrontation.

“I… see… I’ve fought against those giant wolves myself...”

He looks over at her. Ears perked up. “You?... You’ve fought them before?” He was surprised. She didn’t look like a fighter. Not one bit. “I… certainly wasn’t expecting to hear that…”

She was taken a little back, but couldn’t help but laugh a little. “I’m not great at fighting… but I do use my magic to protect myself.”

“Hehe, well… I'll have to stand clear if you throw any magic my way. Especially since you can tussle with a giant wolf. Like me!” He laughed.

Marianne smiled back at him. “You don’t have to worry... You’re not like those wolves.”

“Yeah, you’re right. That coward ran off when I showed him who's boss. You don’t attack someone like me and expect me not to fight back! Ah well… it’s a shame. Wolves are supposed to stick together, but I guess things are different here.”

“I can see you’re not from around here… where are you from anyway?”

“Mt. Garou! I’m chief there. Chief of the Wolfskin. Now that’s a pack you don’t wanna mess with.” He puffed out his chest. Showing how proud he was of himself and his fellow wolves.

She laughed once again. “I’ll keep that in mind… so… there’s more of you?” She says with a look of wonder.

“Hmmm? Y-yeah!... Like I said, there’s a whole pack of us in the mountains. You… really don’t know much about us, huh?”

She shakes her head. “No… afraid not... You’re the first Wolfskin I ever met… I’ve never heard of them before until now… No book I ever read talked about them. No place I’ve ever been to spoke of them... This is all new to me…”

Keaton scratched the fur on top of his head. He looked around the woods that they were in. They’re nothing like he’s ever seen before. In fact, it’s weird that a giant wolf attacked him. The Wolfskin as well as regular sized wolves are the only kind he knows.

“Um… do you… know where... here is?...”

She looks at him a bit confused. “I… don’t really know what you mean…”

“Uh… like… are we in Nohr? O-or maybe this Hoshido?...”

“I-I don’t know what those places are… I’ve never heard of them...”

“What? C’mon, really? I can understand not knowing Mt. Garou, but Nohr and Hoshido? That’s just ridiculous…” He folds his arms.

“I’m sorry... I’ve never heard of any of the places you’re talking about… this is Fodlan. Actually, we’re really close to Garreg Mach Monastery. Past these woods, you can see it clearly…”

He sits there quietly for a brief moment. “... Alright… show me then…” He slowly gets up. He was stiff from having been laying down and being injured, but was able to get himself standing. He stretches his arms and lets out a yawn. Showing off his large, sharp teeth.

“You’re not still hurt, are you?... Please… don’t overextend yourself…” Marianne gets up herself.

“I’m fine… really… I just… need to check something… can you show me this monastery?...”

“Alright… I will…” The two head off with Marianne leading the way. They walked for a bit as the density of the trees grew sparcer. It didn’t take long for the outside to start being clearer. Keaton started to notice that a building was becoming more visible. He starts to panic. He starts to run towards the view.

“K-Keaton?...” Marianne increases her own speed as well so that she wouldn’t lose track of him.

He stops. There as clear as day was a huge building in his line of sight. This must be the monastery Marianne was talking about. He freezes, unable to do anything. He continues to watch the blue skies in the background match the building in all its glory. This wasn’t his home.

(How lost did I get myself this time?...)

Marianne walks around him to face Keaton. “I… hope you enjoy the view… it’s nice… isn’t it?...”

He looked down at her, but he couldn’t do it for long. “It’s… nice… but… I was hoping you were bluffing…”

“How come?...”

He lets out a sigh. “I’m not home, I’m not anywhere close to home. I’m in this… Fodlan place? No… No! I’m from Nohr! Mt. Garou! That’s where I’m supposed to be, but instead I wandered off and got myself lo-” He cut himself. He growled as he turned away.

Marianne was starting to get it. He really wasn’t from around here. “I’m sorry to hear that…” She wasn’t sure what to do. She could tell he was still distressed. After all the healing and everything, she still wanted to help him. She then gets an idea.

“You could stay with me… I mean… with my friends back at the monastery... Until we’re able to find you a way home...”

“What? Stay here?... I-I can’t! I need to get back home now!”

“I’m sorry... b-but how are you gon-”

“I’ll find my own way home! I don’t need help!” He reels himself back. Standing there seeing as Marianne sadly turned her face away from him. His ears dropped at the sight of that.

“I… I-I didn’t mean to yell… I just… wanna go home…” 

Marianne looked back at him, seeing an absolutely pitiful sight. His ears and tail falling towards the ground. She made a soft smile. Hoping to cheer him up. “I understand that you want to go home… if that’s the case, you can… but my friends can help you. So it’s up to you… I understand either way…”

He ponders to himself for a bit. Was he really gonna go home alone only to get lost again?... No… “Alright. I’ll go with you… I… guess I need a little help…”

She smiles a bit brighter. “I’m glad… I’m sure we’ll find you a way home… but you can enjoy the monastery until then...”

He sees her smile and looks away with some pink on his face. “Y-you’re… being awfully nice to me… especially for a human who just found out what a Wolfskin is...”

She laughs a little. “It doesn’t matter what you are… I’m happy to help you… Wolfskin or not...” She normally isn’t one to show much happiness to someone she just met. However, Keaton was different. Being a Wolfskin actually makes him more approachable for her.

“We should go… I’ve been away from the monastery long enough already… I don’t want the others to worry about me…”

Keaton’s eyes roam around as he rubs the back of his neck. His tail begins to wave back and forth as well. “T-Thank you… for this… It… means a lot…”

“You’re… welcome…” Marianne couldn’t help but to smile some more. She thought that his gratitude and tail wagging was precious. She hesitantly puts her hand towards his head. His ears perk right up as she pets his fur. She pulls her hand back and looks at it. It felt just like it did when Keaton was transformed. Coarse, but surprisingly very soft. “I’m sorry…” she sheepishly says as she looks away from him.

Keaton pets his own fur where she had put her hand. It felt familiar to him. A gentle touch. A quick smile comes on his face, only for him to try to hide it just as fast. He was blushing and so was Marianne.

“W-we should get going… like you said…”

“R-right… follow me, Keaton…”

“Right behind you…”

Keaton follows Marianne back to Garreg Mach Monastery. The bells are heard in the distance once again as an hour has passed. Though Keaton may be lost, at least he met someone who’s happy to help him. Marianne had a great time in the woods and she has met someone she would like to get along with more. Befriending this new animal companion of hers doesn’t sound like a bad idea at all. In fact, she’s looking forward to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! This is the first fic I ever finished and I'm pretty happy how it turned out. I hope you liked it as well. ^^
> 
> This may continue or it may not, idk lol. Anyways I hope you just ignored that Keaton being in Fodlan doesn't make any sense lmao. Anyways, I think this pair is really cute and I'm glad I actually did something for them because they're just so precious.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is the first fic I ever finished. I wanted to maybe making this a larger story, but I ran out of ideas so I'm gonna leave this as a one shot. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this. I think these two are adorable. ^^


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